


understanding

by everytuesday



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU of 4.02, Coming Out, M/M, lots of feelings about Fred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 07:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everytuesday/pseuds/everytuesday
Summary: Archie comes out. Accidentally.FP tries to be the honorary PFLAG dad he deserves.





	understanding

Breaking up a high school party for something as minor as a noise complaint goes against just about every bone in FP’s body. There so much stupid shit teens in Riverdale can get up to that underage drinking seems not worth worrying about, but he’s a responsible adult now. An upstanding member of the community. So here he is, wandering Thistlehouse with a badge and a flashlight, telling teenagers to scram as if he hadn’t been to plenty of far more unruly high school parties. It does give him an edge, in that he knows all the best hiding places, having hidden from the cops in this very house too many times to count.

Most of the teens scatter as soon as he walks into the room. The ones sober enough to recognize him give annoyed looks. He’s FP Jones, after all, ex-leader of the Southside Serpents, convicted felon, former inmate. There’s some irony to the situation. He doesn’t belong here in this uniform and it feels especially ill-fitting tonight, the collar buttoned too tight around his throat.

He pushes on anyway, until he finds himself in a corridor he remembers all too well from sneaking off with Fred. It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it because there’s a sofa covering up half the entryway, but anyone looking to hide tends to end up there, which makes it completely unsurprising when he rounds a corner and spots a pair of boys making out. He has to fight back a chuckle, imagining how Penelope Blossom would shudder to know her home has a designated teenage gay makeout hallway.

He clears his throat, “Okay, kids, party’s--”

The boys jerk apart and Archie Andrews looks at him like a deer caught in the headlights.

The boy he’s with -- Moore, something-Moore, one of the kids out of L&L-- catches his hand and starts to pull him away, but Archie stays frozen, eyes locked with FP.

“Come on, Red,” the Moore kid says, tugging on Archie’s hand insistently. Archie snaps his attention to the other boy and nods, scrambling out of the hallway after him.

_ Like father, like son _ is FP’s first thought, immediately followed by a wave of grief more intense than he’d felt in weeks. He has to brace himself against the wall before the weight of it drags him under.  He doesn’t bother trying to clear out the rest of the house. He’s too distracted and he tells himself they’ll have seen the lights from the cruiser anyway. They’ll know it’s over.

He drives back into town at a snail’s pace, mulling over what to do next. Or if he should do anything at all, really. He could ignore it; Archie clearly wasn’t wanting his sexuality to be public knowledge. He might appreciate it if FP pretended he hadn’t seen anything.

But that’s not what Fred would do. FP has no illusions he can ever be half the father Fred was, Jughead’s fierce independence is evidence enough of that, but Archie needs somebody in his corner. Especially for this, when FP might understand better than any other adult in his life.

That’s how he finds himself on the Andrews doorstep a week later, looking a very wary Archie in the eye.

“Jug’s staying over his first weekend at Stonewall, but I’m bringing him some of his books,” FP rattles off, “Do you want to come with?”

“Oh. Sure. Let me just--” he steps back into the house, retrieves a set of keys, and follows FP outside to the car.

They manage some small talk the first few minutes. The usual “How’s school going?” garbage. Archie’s still struggling with academics after juvie last year, but socially he seems to be doing okay. They lapse into silence and Archie gets out his phone, presumably to, among other things, let Mary know his whereabouts.

“Hey, does Jug know I’m coming up?” Archie asks. “I was going to text him, but maybe it’d be more fun to surprise him.”

“I didn’t even tell him I was coming,” FP says distractedly. He knows these kinds of conversations tend to go easier when you’re not looking directly at someone, which is the only reason he thought about driving up to Stonewall this weekend. He’s just not sure how to start the conversation or where Archie’s head is at.

“This isn’t about visiting Jughead,” Archie’s not asking. FP glances at him, but Archie continues on, “You want to talk about me and Munroe. At the party last weekend.”

“Yeah,” FP allows. “And I’m going full PFLAG parent here, just so you know what you’re in for.”

“Thanks, Mr. Jones,” Archie’s smile doesn’t meet his eyes. His leg is bouncing up and down, hands clasped tight in his lap. He’s strung so tight and anxious, FP wishes he’d just asked him to take a walk instead of this road trip so he could at least hug the kid.

“Archie,” FP says, trying to sound gentle. “It’s okay.”

“I know it’s okay. I know it’s just-- I never even told my dad.”

FP jerks to look at Archie sitting rigidly in his seat. He’d just assumed-- Fred and Archie had always been so close. Something like this seems like something they would’ve talked about.

“I was just scared, I guess. Which is so stupid because,” here Archie gets emphatic, quick to defend Fred’s goodness, “I _know _he wouldn’t have thought anything bad about it. But I never-- I mean, I’ll never know for sure how he would’ve reacted. What he would’ve said to me.”

“I do,” It’s out before he can stop it and it’s the one thing he can offer Archie.

“Mr. Jones?”

“I have a pretty good idea how he would’ve reacted. I’ve got a better idea than anyone else, actually,” FP sucks in a breath. Some part of him knew this was where this conversation was headed the moment he and Archie got into the car, but saying it out loud is-- There’s a reason it’s been a secret for almost three decades. FP swallows, “Your dad and I were pretty close in high school, you know that. But it was a lot more than just a friendship. It was, um-- Well, you’re a lot like Fred, Archie. In more ways than you know.”

He hopes that’s enough. He’s not sure he can get out anything else, his throat closes up and his eyes are starting to--

They’re on a dead stretch of road with no one behind them, so he slows to pull the car over just to get a chance to breathe and they sit for a moment. Archie’s leg has stopped bouncing and he’s staring intently at the dash, deep in thought.

“You and my dad...?”

FP runs a hand over his face and takes a breath, “Yeah. Yeah, we were-- together. Back in high school.”

There it is, out in the open, no longer just his and Fred’s secret.

Archie’s eyes are wide, “He never said anything. He talked about high school all the time, but he never said anything about that.”

“Nobody knew,” FP says. They’d been so careful to make sure no one had known. “But uh… when we graduated, we went our separate ways. He and your mom got together. And they loved each other, they really did. Life moves on, people fall in and out of love all the time.”

“So my dad was-- What, he was bisexual?”

“Yeah. So I know he wouldn’t just tell you he loves you or that you’re still the same Archie or whatever basic supportive bullshit. He’d say all that, but he’d-- He’d  _ understand _ . And I understand.”

“Do you think he’d want me to come out?” Archie asks.

Shit. How is he supposed to respond to that? He and Fred hadn’t talked about it in years. Just once, in the past decade, when Jughead and Archie were in middle school and they announced their friend Kevin had come out. He and Fred mused over whether or not they’d have done anything differently, if things had been more like are now.  _ Yes, of course _ , was FP’s thought, but he didn’t say it.

“He’d want you to do what you felt was right.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem because I think the right thing to do would be to come out. Kevin’s the only out guy in school right? But I’m a senior and there’s all these freshmen coming in. Munroe thinks his little brother might be-- Um, Munroe’s the boy I was with at the party. Anyway, if his brother is gay or any of the kids, really... Munroe and I talked about it and he doesn’t really care either way about being out, but I-- I do.”

Archie looks so much like Fred it hurts.

“You don’t owe anybody anything. It’s none of their damn business,” FP says. Things are different in Riverdale than they used to be, but not  _ that  _ different. Cheryl Blossom and Moose Mason were evidence enough of that and Penelope and Marcus weren’t only backwards-minded people in Riverdale, even if they were among the most extreme about it.

“I know. But if I can help people, wouldn’t that be the best way to honor him?”

FP doesn’t have anything to add to that. Maybe it would be, but he doesn’t want Archie getting hurt and Fred wouldn’t want that either. Instead, he says,  “Tell me about Munroe."

“Munroe?” Archie smiles, a little hesitant, “We met in L&L and he… He gets what I’ve been through, maybe better than anyone. I feel a little less crazy around him. And he’s really smart. Like,  _ so  _ smart. He’s behind on some school stuff, but he’s catching on way faster than me in most things. And he’s kind and-- I don’t know. He’s just  _ good _ .”

FP can see the light in Archie’s eyes and FP can’t stop himself from grinning along with him. Archie starts rambling off stories, now that he’s started talking about his secret he can’t stop talking about it, and FP listens attentively, tries to commit the details to memory in case he’s the only person Archie ever tells about any of this.

But he’s not.

A couple hours later, Jughead opens the door to his dorm room, grinning when he sees the pair of them, “Hey! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“We wanted to surprise you,” FP says, hefting the box of books he’d collected from Jughead’s room at home, “Where do you want these?”

Jughead shows them around the tiny dorm room: bed, dresser, closet, and a window that looks out onto the school’s lawns, which is clearly Jug’s favorite part. There’s more small talk, and then Archie clears his throat.

“Hey, Jug?” Archie says. “I’m gay.”

Jughead blinks a few times, then looks to FP for confirmation. FP’s too startled to say anything and he’s sure his dumbstruck expression is doing nobody any favors.

“Oh,” Jughead says. Helpfully. “Oh. That’s-- That’s great, Arch.”

There’s a long beat of silence, after which Jughead offers to give them a tour of campus. FP’s already seen it, and says as much, so Archie and Jughead head off into the campus just the two of them, chatting away. FP hopes whatever they say will be what Archie needs. He thinks it will be; Jughead is a good kid, not that FP can take much credit for it.

FP busies himself buying lunch in town for everyone and by the time he returns, Jug and Archie are back in the dorm room. They eat, say their goodbyes, and he and Archie hit the road again.

“Anyone ever tell you how brave you are?” FP asks.

“I don’t know if I’m going to come out to everyone,” Archie says. “It was just Jug. He’s your son, you knew he was going to be--”

“Still brave,” FP says firmly.

Archie shrugs, but he’s relaxed into his seat a but more, breathing easier. They don’t talk as much on the drive back; Archie seems deep in thought. When they get out back on Elm Street, Archie runs around to FP’s side of the car and before FP can realize what’s happening, Archie is hugging him.

“Thanks,” Archie mutters.

“You ever need to talk…”

“I will,” Archie says. “You too, Mr. Jones.”

“What, talk?” FP laughs, hoping to stave off the oncoming tears long enough to get inside.

Archie nods, “If you want to talk about my dad, since I’m the only one who knows.”

FP tries to form a response, but Archie rushes out a “Goodnight, Mr. Jones,” and takes the opportunity to run back across the lawn to his house.

As FP turns back to his own house, he hopes Archie knows just how proud Fred Andrews would be.


End file.
